Month: December 2023

Federal authorities sued Houston-area developer Colony Ridge on Wednesday, with accusations of them luring Latino home buyers into seller-financed mortgages and setting them up to default and face foreclosure.  The lawsuit comes one week after the Houston Landing published an investigation about Colony Ridge’s lending practices.

Colony Ridge entities developed a collection of subdivisions that cover about 33,000 acres of land 30 miles north of Houston. Federal authorities allege that Colony Ridge used Spanish videos to target prospective Latino buyers, and once a person visited the property, the developer allegedly used high-pressure sales tactics, required minimal down payments and extended loans without assessing a buyer’s ability to repay or verifying their gross income.

Alamdar S. Hamdani, U.S. Attorney for area of Houston, said: “Colony Ridge set out to exploit something as old as America: An immigrant’s dream of owning a home. As alleged in the complaint, Colony Ridge’s exploitative practice began with misleading advertisements on platforms like TikTok and often ended with families facing economic ruin. No home – and shattered dreams.”

Federal authorities also said at a news conference on Wednesday that Colony Ridge also misrepresented facts — such as guarantees of water, electricity and sewer hook-ups — “causing borrowers to incur substantial unanticipated expenses after closing”, federal officials said. Once a buyer fell behind on payments, the company bought the land again and repeated the process — sometimes multiple times with the same piece of property.

Colony Ridge’s chief executive John Harris said Wednesday he was “blindsided” by the lawsuit, which he called “baseless and both outrageous and inflammatory. Our business thrives off customer referrals because landowners are happy and able to experience the American Dream of owning property. We loan to those who have no opportunity to get a loan from anyone else and we are proud of the relationship we have developed with customers. We look forward to telling the true story of Colony Ridge.”

Editorial credit: Paul Brady Photography / Shutterstock.com

Xfinity has notified its customers that a hacker data breach obtained access to the personal information of 36 million customers — comprising nearly all of Xfinity’s customers. The data included passwords, user names and security-question answers.

An Xfinity notice to customers this week said that the hack was due to a vulnerability in Citrix software that was patched. Subsequently, Xfinity discovered that hackers had nonetheless gained access to customers’ personal data. The Xfinity notice said: “after additional review of the affected systems and data, Xfinity concluded on December 6, 2023, that the customer information in scope included usernames and hashed passwords; for some customers, other information may also have been included, such as names, contact information, last four digits of social security numbers, dates of birth and/or secret questions and answers.” 

According to Comcast, all Xfinity customers — even those whose accounts might not have been breached — must reset their usernames and passwords, and strongly recommended its customers enable two-factor authorization to secure accounts. It also warned customers to not re-use passwords across multiple platforms.

Comcast noted “while Xfinity advises customers not to re-use passwords across multiple accounts, the company is recommending that customers change passwords for other accounts for which they use the same username and password or security question.” 

Cloud computing company Citrix had announced a vulnerability in its software Oct. 10 and issued mitigation guidance Oct. 23; then on Oct. 25, Xfinity said, it discovered “suspicious activity and subsequently determined that between October 16 and October 19, 2023, there was unauthorized access to its internal systems that was concluded to be a result of this vulnerability.”

Customers with questions can contact Xfinity toll-free at (888) 799-2560 24 hours a day Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Eastern time. More information is available on Xfinity’s website at xfinity.com/dataincident.

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Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who was the first woman to serve on the High Court, was honored by President Biden and other political figures at her funeral on Tuesday. O’Connor passed away in Phoenix on Dec. 1 at the age of 93.

O’Connor was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Ronald Reagan and confirmed by the Senate unanimously, becoming the first woman justice in the court’s 191-year history (four women now sit on the Supreme Court).  At her funeral, O’Connor was described as a ‘trailblazing jurist who served as a role model for millions by breaking down gender barriers for women across the legal profession,’ who served on the Supreme Court for more than two decades. President Biden and Chief Justice John Roberts were among those who eulogized the late O’Connor, and all nine sitting justices, as well as retired Justice Anthony Kennedy, attended Tuesday’s services at the National Cathedral in Washington.

Said Biden: “One need not agree with all her decisions in order to recognize that her principles were deeply held and of the highest order, and that her desire for civility was genuine and her trust in the capacity of human institutions to make life better is what this world was abiding. And how she embodied such attributes under such pressure and scrutiny helped empower generations of women in every part of American life … It was a person for all seasons who we saw in that hearing, and the Americans and the world would see through her extraordinary service as a justice and, as I might add, as a citizen,” while adding that O’Connor “broke down the barriers in the legal and political world, and the nation’s consciousness. May God bless Sandra Day O’Connor, an American pioneer.”

Roberts served briefly on the court with O’Connor following his appointment in 2005; he was originally selected to replace O’Connor on the bench, but eventually succeeded Chief Justice William Rehnquist following his death in 2005. Said Roberts of O’Connor: “That distance is a measure of time, but it’s also a measure of Justice O’Connor’s life and work. In nearly a quarter century on the court, she was a strong, influential, and iconic jurist. Her leadership shaped the legal profession, making it obvious that judges are both women and men. The time when women were not on the bench seemed so far away because Justice O’Connor was so good when she was on the bench.”

O’Connor retired from the Supreme Court in 2006 at the age of 75 to take care of her husband following his Alzheimer’s diagnosis. She was awarded with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, by President Barack Obama in 2009. O’Connor died of complications related to advanced dementia and a respiratory illness.

Editorial credit: Rob Crandall / Shutterstock.com

Fresh Express bagged spinach is being recalled in seven states due to a potential health risk. The recall was initiated after the Florida Department of Agriculture tested a “randomly selected” package of spinach as part of its routine sampling activities and received a positive result for the bacteria. According to the FDA, Listeria is an organism which can cause serious or fatal infections in children, the elderly, and others with weakened immune systems.

The affected items include: 8-ounce prepackaged Fresh Express bags with th product code G332 and now expired use-by date of Dec. 15; and 9-ounce prepackaged bags under the Publix brand name with product code G332 and a now expired use-by date of Dec. 14.

The recalled spinach was sold to store in the following states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. People who have already purchased the spinach are urged to not consume it, and throw it away. As of press time, no illness have been reported in connection to the Fresh Express recall.

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